Is there a True Link Between Youth and the Potential for Transformative Action?

We may all have dealt with unreasonable expectations to be somehow outstanding. Our parents applaud us for athletic achievements, scientific awards, and participation in a wide range of axtracurricular activites. But do you think the parents of the students of the Free Speech Movement expressed pride in the children's accomplishments? Probably not. Even though the students' actions were later seen as monumentally revolutionary, I am sure their parents expressed deep concern for the childrens' safety and academic standing. These concerns are completely valid. The students put a lot at risk, sometimes endangering their own and others' well-being for a cause they truely believed in. I am equally sure their parents hoped someone else would do the dirty work. This begs the question, if not young, semi-educated adults, who else? This is then to remind us of who were the formative minds of past revolutions: Betty Freidan, Martin Luther King Jr, etc. These people created truely outstanding ideas that could have changed the world for the better, but the group who actually set fire to the revolution were the young people. They, in essence, set the stage for future generations.